Alternatives to OpenAI API
Compare the same workload. Check the differences behind the price.
OpenAI API
Industry-standard foundation models with automatic prompt caching and vision.
$3.08 / month
GPT-4o mini
Official pricing · Checked 2026-10-06
Cost breakdown and exclusions
- Monthly subscription: $0
- Standard input tokens: $1.50
- Output completion tokens: $1.20
- Cached prompt tokens: $0.38
- Automatic 50% prompt caching discount applies to prompts with 1,024+ identical leading tokens.
- Fine-tuning, Batch API discounts, audio/realtime APIs, and image generation.
What this comparison covers
Commercial API inference for generative language and reasoning models. Shared multi-tenant API endpoints, standard rate limits, and pay-as-you-go billing without committed use discounts or provisioned throughput. Fine-tuning, batch API discounts, embeddings, and audio generation are excluded.
Evaluating 4 products from 4 published in this category. USD monthly equivalents, before tax. Features and service compatibility need separate evaluation.
- Standard input tokens
- 10,000,000 tokens / month
- Output tokens
- 2,000,000 tokens / month
- Cached prompt tokens
- 5,000,000 tokens / month
3 alternatives in this comparison
Groq Cloud
LPU Inference Engine delivering unmatched token output speeds.
$10.43 / month
$7.35 more per month
- Llama 3.3 70B (Groq): $10.43/month at reference usage.
- Industry-leading 250+ tokens per second inference speeds on dedicated LPU hardware.
- Context prompt caching discounts, vision inputs on this model.
Official source · Checked 2026-10-06
Compare with OpenAI API →Anthropic Claude
Leading coding and analytical models with 90% prompt cache read discounts.
Not modeled
Savings cannot be established at this workload.
- Claude 3.5 Haiku: Estimate unavailable at reference usage.
- Claude 3.5 Haiku retired on February 19, 2026. This model is unavailable on the Claude API.
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet retired on October 28, 2025. This model is unavailable on the Claude API.
- This pricing model is not supported.
Official source · Checked 2026-10-08
Compare with OpenAI API →DeepSeek API
Ultra cost-effective open-weights models with deep reasoning and context caching.
Not modeled
Savings cannot be established at this workload.
- DeepSeek-R1: Estimate unavailable at reference usage.
- Current DeepSeek pricing lists V4 models. This legacy R1 model and its historical token rates are not supported by the current pricing source.
- Current DeepSeek pricing lists V4 models. This legacy V3 model and its historical token rates are not supported by the current pricing source.
- This pricing model is not supported.
Official source · Checked 2026-10-08
Compare with OpenAI API →Questions before you decide
Are these drop-in replacements for OpenAI API?
No compatibility is implied by sharing the LLM APIs category. Check the selected plans, workload assumptions, API compatibility and required features before switching.